The Goal: One Year To Follow A Dream

Hello Ladies and Gents,

After a solid year of unemployment, I'm allowing myself 1 year and 1 year only, to follow my dream and become a real writer. For years I've toiled away in silence, writing for me, myself and I, but no more! The goal is by year's end to have published something, anything, anywhere for pay. Even if it is for a tuppence, I will be published or I will throw in the towel and take a job at First Data (like my mother has suggested). Each day, I will write at least 1,000 words and begin to send out submissions to magazines, newspapers, literary agents, etc. until someone hears my call.

Most people might find this daunting or extreme, but after four years in college, three years in graduate school and two years of attempting to get by on pitiful excuses for academic employment, I now find myself a year into what looks to be a lifetime of unemployment so I figured what's the harm in trying to get paid for something I love. I won't post my writings on here (that somehow feels a step too egocentric), but I will chart my journey of success or failure for you each day (or so). By the end, if nothing else I will have a how to manual for how not to get published.

In the meantime, I am very happy to hear from any of you who might have thoughts or suggestions for my journey to publication. I'll be doing a lot of research into the business of writing (something I know very little about) and will feed that back through if I find anything helpful or interesting. Till then, I'm off to writing land for the day! J.A.